The College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) requires all undergraduate seniors to participate in a capstone project designed to be the culmination of their undergraduate experience as well as provide the student with the opportunity to gain experience in running a project within the safe confines of academia. Also in place of a thesis, graduate students have the choice of a capstone project. Hurricane Katrina that devastated the Gulf Coast region in 2005 exposed the management weaknesses and vulnerabilities in both the infrastructure and communication in emergency systems at federal, state, and local levels. Out of this unfortunate situation, UTC became involved in developing a local system to support a timely, secure and reliable emergency communication system. Last year, Total Municipal Awareness System (TMAS) was selected as the capstone project for both undergraduate and graduate students. This paper discusses the experience ...
Joseph M. Kizza, Li Yang, Andy Novobilski, Kathy W